The European Commission Wades Into The Cloud Contracts Debate Cloud computing contracts have always been a matter of serious debate in this fledgling industry. With a lack of established standards and best practices (See: Cloud Computing Standards: How Important Are They? ), not unknown for such a nascent and dynamic field, this is only to be expected. Not surprisingly, this topic has featured in a number of articles on this site (See: The Small Print in Cloud Computing Contracts, Can You Retrieve Your Data After Terminating Your Contract? and Negotiating Tips On Software-As-A-Service Contracts). Now, the European Commission has made its views known on this
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Why Is Europe Not Storming The Cloud? It is expected that Europe will be behind the US by a minimum of two years when it comes to cloud computing adoption, due to four major issues: the current euro crisis, advanced privacy rules, the changing political decision-making, and local business needs. These are the primary reasons why Europe is taking a much slower pace in adopting cloud computing as compared to the USA. Analyst group Gartner believe that although there is high interest in cloud computing in Europe, there are so many local complications that it could result in delaying adoption
Should Cloud Computing Service Providers Screen Potential Customers? The World Wide Web is full of articles advising consumers on what they should look for when choosing a cloud provider, how they should negotiate contracts with providers, what danger signs they should be aware of and a plethora of other advice. However, an extremely illuminating article that I read recently on IT World (See: What should cloud providers know about their customers?) made me think from the other side of the fence – “Should cloud computing service providers screen potential customers?” Many would consider this line of thinking ludicrous. After all,
Cloud Computing May Open Up Firms To Hundreds Of Millions In Fines Under EU Laws One of the major attractions of cloud computing is its universal accessibility; in essence, it is computing without borders. However, the world is divided into distinct countries, and with that come different rules and regulations. Consequently, this can and does give rise to different problems (see: Computing Without Borders – What Works, What Doesn’t). While it is true that American companies rule the roost as far as provision and consumption of cloud computing services are concerned, it’s also an established fact that there exists a
Are The Big Players Being Hypocritical On Cloud Computing Standards? The usefulness (and necessity) of developing universal cloud computing standards has been covered in several articles (See: Cloud Computing Standards: How Important Are They? and Cloud Computing Standards – is it time? ). However, now that some concrete steps are being taken towards this goal, the industry is facing non-cooperation from several big players. Come to think of it, that’s not surprising. Consider what the big names like Amazon and Microsoft may lose out on if universal standards come into place. One, they would lose the power of vendor lock-in
